NEWS OF THE WEEK.
A/ 1ER twenty-two months of war the German High Sea Fleet at last came out of its shelter and offered battle on Wednes- day, May 31st. In the greatest naval battle of the war—and of course the greatest battle in history, since for the first time super- Dreadnoughts, with all their terrific yet uncertain possibilities, opposed one another—our battle-cruisers and some cruisers and light cruisers, supported by four fast battleships, although exposed to greatly superior numbers, attempted to hold up, and even to cut off, the High Sea Fleet till the great battleships under Sir John Jellicoe could arrive. As it happened, the Germans were able to escape when the balance of numbers told in our favour, but they escaped thinned in numbers, limping, and terribly mauled. The net result, therefore, was that the High Sea Fleet utterly failed in its mission, which may possibly have been to disperse as commerce raiders in the Atlantic, or to swoop on Archangel and scatter ruin among our munition ships and grain carriers. It was driven back under the cover of its shore guns and behind its ramparts of mines, and Sir John Jellicoe was able to scour the North Sea at his leisure and assure himself that not an enemy ship remained there.
